We served this rich meaty vegan paté at our pop-up café last June on our vegetarian Surrey Platters. Much lower fat than meat based paté makes it a healthy option too. Providing you use some field mushrooms in your mix you will achieve the rich coloured mix shown here. Use a low salt yeast extract at it develops the meaty flavour without escalating the sodium content.

Heat the oil and butter in a large pan with a lid. Sweat the onions and garlic until softened and ever so slightly browned. Add the diced fresh and dried mushrooms to the pan and cook with the lid on stirring occasionally for 5 minutes over a low heat. Mix the yeast extract with the reserved soaking water from the dried mushrooms, add to the pan with the herbs and cook gently for a further five minutes.Remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs. Allow to cool, then pulse the mixture in a food processor for a few seconds. Mix thoroughly, adjust the seasoning and place in a serving dish. Garnish with fresh herbs and chill until required.

If you don’t have a food processor just very finely chop the ingredients before cooking.

Serve as a starter or light lunch with salad or use as a sandwich filling.